Feather’s Music: The First Of Three

Happy weekend all!

I hope you’re having the finest Friday evening, full of merry making and friendly gatherings. For this week’s post I’ve decided to do something a little different, rather than revealing a (mostly) completed piece that I then dissect in your honor, so that you may understand how my overly-excitable brain works when it comes to composing.

I thought I might show you the very beginning stages of how I write a piece followed by how I might decide to contrast the main theme and/or develop the idea further. I’ll be doing this over a 3 part series, gradually adding to the original theme by either contrasting it in different ways, or simply (or not so simply) developing it into something different or something that compliments the first part. So let’s start by hearing my initial idea for a theme that I penciled into Cubase for your amusement:

This thematic idea came about from simply wasting time, by playing with my virtual oboe instrument sample (as I love it so much) and gradually crafted it into a simple theme. Now I’ve always enjoyed the oboe’s nasal yet pure timbre (sound) but even so that’s never usually enough for me. So I just added the soft violins on the root and 4th notes of the first chord, to fill out the empty space and create that cinematic/emotional feel that really compliments the oboe’s natural tone, almost as if the oboe is singing a solo in the great outdoors.

Towards the very end I put some double basses plucking the home key’s notes simply to signal the direction that the piece will go in (or not?) in part II of this series. I know it’s painfully short but that’s kinda the idea (and definitely the plan), which will reveal itself in the next post (including the chord progression!). I encourage you all to stay tuned (pun intended) ‘til next time, if you want to hear what happens after the oboe is done singing her song…..

So until then, dust off your pianos and get your manuscript papers out, because part II is coming soon….